Paper drying apparatus



A ril 27, 1948.

M. PHILLIPS PAPER DRYING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 13, 1943 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 I I f m w ,"c 1

INVENTOR. 14M. BY

A T TOP/VEYJ April 27, 1948. I M. PHILLIPS Q 2,440,346

PAPER DRYING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 13, 1943 I5 Sheets-Sheet 2 l VENTQR.

gum/64 9 121 ATTOAWfYJ I 1948. M. PHILLIPS PAPER DRYING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 13, 1943 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented Apr. 27, 1948 n nnrrco smrss PATENT c erics riirnn erms arrsns'rns li larin Phillips, Appleton, Wis, asslgnor to The Appleton Footed Paper Company, Appleton, Wis, a corporation of. Wisconsin Application @ctobcr 13, 1943, Serial No. 506,026

The inventionrelates to drying apparatus and more particularly to what areknown as i'estoon driers wherein the material is conveyed through a drying chamher in a series of loops or festoons.

Eleretofore, the loop-carrying sticks have been release by having the material start the stick and puli it off, out this has been found objections able as the desired speed cannot be obtained heof the danger of crashing the paper or injuring other material heing dried and trouble experienced with sticks thrown off in difierent di -ecticns. The object of invention. is to improve the loop tahe up mechanism of the drier by roviding a positive control for the release of the over which thematerial being dried is looped. According to the present invention, the stick is released before the loop is taken up, and

by continually keeping a certain amount of loop Fig. 3 is a circuit diagram of the magnet com I trol;

Fig. 4 is a detailed sectional view taken on the line l-d of Fig. 2, showing the stick release mechanism in stop position;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. d showing the stick release mechanism in released position;

Fig. 6 is a detailed vertical sectional view taken on the line ii@ of Fig. l;

Fig. 7 is a detailed sectional view taken on the line 'l--? of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, the material to be dried, such as the paperweb P, is looped over the sticks S, and in this condition is carried by the spaced conveyors 8 in the drying zone to the spaced conveyors 9, the conveyors 8 having cleats Ill for engaging the ends of the sticks S.

From the spaced conveyors 9, the sticks S are. delivered to the spaced conveyors ll providedwith cleats it by which the sticks are carried along to spaced guideways [3 by which they are conveyed to a box (not shown) or other suitable collector. Fig. 1 of the drawings shows one set of the conveyors and guideways for one end of the 6 (Claims. (Ci. 271+22) sticks, and it will be apparent that similar properly spaced conveyors and guideways areprovided for the other ends of the sticks, some of which are shown in Fig. 2.

In Figs. 4 and 7 one of the conveyors 91s shown in detail aslncluding an endless chain, it associated with a grooved guide thin which the flattened end it of the stick rides whileicarried alongby the chain it, the weight of the paper or material being dried holding the ends of the sticks against the chain.

Usually in fcstoon dryers the tension of the paper or material being treated itself is used to I I cause a release of the foremost stick S, so that it may drop onto the conveyors ii, and this release may occur while there is little or no loop left in the material, so that a reverse loop may form therein which may cause the material to crack or he injured, particularly if it is attempted to speed up the action of the apparatus.

According to the present invention, I have provided means for positively controlling the release of the foremost stick at a definite time in the take-up period of the loop of the material being dried, so that there is always a. certain amount of loop in the paper at the time this foremost sticl;

is released. As herein shown, this means includes electromagnetically controlled stops or bars it for each end of the foremost stick. Each bar it carries a laminated armature orcore it which forms the plunger of a solenoid electromagnet whose coil it is mounted on casing 20 secured to the frame 2i of the drier.

In order to insure but one stick at a time being released, an auxiliarystop rod 22 is slidably mounted in the casing it and is moved by the movement of the bar ill to a blocking position,

shown in Fig. 5, before the bar ll moves to its full release position and remains in this position until the bar ll moves to its initial stop position. For this purpose the bar ll has a lost motion operating connection with the rod 22 :by means of a lever 23 pivoted intermediate its ends on a pin 24, one of the ends of said lever engaging in spaced slots 25 in the bar IT and the other forked end 26 disposed between a block 2? secured to the rod 22 and a collar 28 slidably mounted on the rod 22. The collar is normally held against the end 26 of the lever by means of a compression 3- When. however, the stop bar i1 is pulled up by its electromagnet and the lever 23 is shifted from the position shown in Fig. 4 to the position shown in Fig. 5, the bar I! is moved up to release the foremost stick and the stop rod 22 is moved down to a position to stop the next stick from being released and at the same time the spring 29 is compressed.

With this construction, as the bar I! is lifted upwardly by its solenoid, the lever 23 is oscillated in a clockwise direction. This, through the collar 28 and spring 30, causes a, downward movement of the rod 22 to the position shownin Fig. '5. This action occurs during the first half upward movement of the rod I1. During the remainder of the upward-.movement of the rod I! to its release position, the lever 23 acting on the collar 28 serves to compress the spring 30 without moving the rod 22 since under these conditions the stop portion 3| of the rod 22 is engaging the casing and the lost motion between this rod and the bar I1 is taken up through the action of said spring 30. During the return movement of the bar I! this lost motion is first taken up to allow the bar IT to reach a stopping position beforethe rod 22 is carried up by the spring 29 to a release position to allow the sticks to move to a position to bring the foremost stick S against the stop bar I'I.

The coil iii of the electromagnet is controlled by switch mechanism that is rendered operable by the action of the movement .of the material itself as its loop is being taken up and at a time preferably in advance of the usual release of the stick by the loop. For this purpose the energizswitch 33 which then allows the current from the line 32 to pass through the solenoid coils l3.

'thus drawing up the bars H at the ends of the so that the switch 33 is open and the solenoids ing means for the magnet is controlled by an electric eye controlled mechanism.

The coils l9 are supplied with current from a supply line 32 through a magnetically operated circuit closure switch 33 which is controlled by an electric eye operated circuit closure designated generally by the numeral 34 and having its light source 35 in the supply line 32, this closure being operatively connected with the supply line 32 and connected by a conductor 36 with the operating coil 39 for the switch 33 which coil is connected by a conductor 40 with the other side of the closure 34, this conductor including a pair of micro-switches 4| which are normally closed by springs 42 and are opened by the downward movement of a bar 43 connected to the switch levers- 44, this downward movement being effected by the weight of a released stick S dropping onto said bar from the position shown in Fig. 4. The switches 4| are in series with the closure 34, so that when this closure is closed, the magnet coil 39 will be energized.

The supply 32 may be closed by a manually operated double pole switch 45 and the circuit for the coil 39 put in an operative condition by manually operated switch 46,

The electric eye device 34 is adjusted to close the circuit during a dark period, that is, when 7 no light rays can shine from the light 35 to the device 34, and with the parts shown in the position in Fig. 2, the loop of the paper P would intercept the light rays at a position below that shown in Fig. 2- and would maintain the light rays intercepted until just after the paper moved up from the position shown in Fig. 2. As soon as the light rays are intercepted from the light source 35 to the eye device 34, as when the preceding loop is in the position shown in Fig. 1, the control circuit including conductor 36 is closed and magnet 39 is energized to close the I9 de-energized and the bars l1 again lowered to a stop position ready to repeat the cycle. As soon as the paper reaches the position in which the light rays from the source 35 to the device 34 are again allowed to pass the circuit through the device 34 is open, so that it is not possible to again operate the coils i9 until the condition of darkness is restored or until the condition of the paper necessitates the release of another stick.

It is further to be noted that the bar 43 alon which a. released stick is carried provides a certain time element in which the released stick will hold the circuit closure 4| open, and this is provided to prevent getting more than one stick released at a time since with these closures 4i open no more sticks can be released until the paper or other material being treated is in a condition to have the light to the device 34 well interrupted. Thus the time element provided by the bars 43 prevents the loop of material from stopping on what might be termed the edge of the light beam from the source 35. Thus the point in the-take-up of the loop or festoon at which the stick is released in order to start the taking up of another loop is definitely controlled and occurs before the paper itself tends to release the stick. This permits the stick to be released relatively early during the take-up of the loop which allows the loop take-up mechanism to be speeded up over the usual practice and thus increases the out-put of the drier apparatus.

I desire it to be understood that this invention is not to be limited to any specific form or arrangement of parts except in so far as such limitations are included in the claims.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. In a drying apparatus wherein the material is carried in loops on sticks conveyed through the drier, the combination of a reciprocatory stop for arresting the movement of the foremost stick, a reciprocatory stop for arresting the movement of the sticks succeedin the foremost stick .until after said stick-is released, an operating connection between said stops including a lever operable by said first named stop and a yielding drive connection between said lever and second named stop to permit lost motion between said stops and return said first named stop to its arresting position, and means for positively moving said first named stop to a release position when the preceding loop of the material has reached 'a predetermined loop position.

2. In a drying apparatus wherein the material is carried in loops on sticks conveyed through the drier, the combination of a stop for arresting the movement of the foremost stick, means for positively releasing said stop when the preceding loop has moved to a predetermined looping position. and means directly actuated by the released stick for delaying subsequent actuation of said release means to release said stop until said preceding loop is taken up to a predetermined position.

3. In drying apparatus wherein the material is carried in loops on sticks conveyed through the K movement or the foremost stick. an electromagnet for releasing said stop, a current supply circuit i'or said electromagnet including an electrically operated switch, a, control circuit for said switch including circuit closing switch mechanism rendered operative when the preceding loop of material has been taken up a predetermined amount to thereby release said stop to release a stick, and circuit opening mechanism in said control circuit including a member of predetermined length moved by the release stick to operate said circuit opening mechanism while moving along said member and thereby rendering said control circuit inoperative for a predetermined period after the release of said stick.

4. In a drying apparatus wherein the material is carried in loops on sticks conveyed through the drier, the combination of a stop for arresting the movement of the foremost stick, an electromagnet for releasing said stop, a current supply circuit for said electromagnet including an electrically operated switch, a control circuit for said switch including circuit closing switch mechanism rendered operative when the preceding loop of the material has been taken up a predetermined amount, and circuit opening mechanism in said control circuit operable by the released stick and including a timing member engaged by said stick, said circuit opening mechanism rendering said control circuit inoperative for a predetermined period after the release of a stick.

5. In a drying apparatus wherein the material is carried in loops on sticks conveyed through the drier, the combination or a stop for arresting the movement of the foremost stick, an electromagnet for moving said stop to its release position when the preceding loop of the material has reached a predetermined loop position and having its armature directly connected to said stop, a stop for arresting the movement of the sticks succeeding the foremost stick until after said stick is released and havinga lost motion connection with said is carried in loops on sticks conveyed through the drier, the combination of a stop for arresting the Y movement or the foremost stick, a stop for arresting the movement of the sticks succeeding the foremost stick until aiter said stick is released, said first named stop in stopping osition extending beyond the center of an arrested stick while said second named stop in blocking position does not extend beyond the center of an arrested stick, means for positively moving said first named stop to a release position when the preceding loop of the material has reached a predetermined loop position, and means for moving said second named stop to a blocking position before the first named stop has moved to a position at which stick release can take place and holding said second named stop in this position until the first stop moves to a blocking position.

MARIN PHILLIPS.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,035,227 Fowler Mar. 24, 1936 2,043,795 Dickhaut et a1. June 9, 1936 2,261,857 Morgan Nov. 4, i941 

